The Witch Burnings in Muggle and Wizard Society
by BrownOwlet
Summary: Remember the essay in History of Magic that Harry had to write at the beginning of The Prisoner of Azkaban? This is almost it.


Disclaimer: JKR owns all rights to Harry Potter, I don't.

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To be handed in to Professor Binns

**The Witch Burnings in Muggle and Wizard Society**

One of the most interesting happenings between muggles and wizard kind are the infamous witch burnings. The witch burnings are a good example for how muggles often try to destroy what they don't understand and how they are unable to cope with what they call 'supernatural forces'.

In muggle society, witches and alleged witches were under prosecution from the late Middle Ages, about 1450, until the late 18th century. Of course, wizards were regarded as just as dangerous as witches but somehow in muggle public opinion women were held responsible for witchcraft more often. In Great Britain, witchcraft as perceived by muggles ceased to be punishable with the Witchcraft Act of 1735. Contemporary witch hunts are only found in sub Saharan Africa, India and Papua New Guinea, while anti witchcraft legislation persists in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon only.

In modern times, the term witch hunt has been applied by muggles to describe governments and business activities to seek out and expose perceived enemies, usually done to create a certain public opinion. This is particularly ironic since those that used to pursue mostly innocent people in panic now use similar methods to create such a public panic themselves.

While in Ancient Egypt and classical antiquity magic was often used in those societies and even muggles themselves attempted to do so, mainly by imitating alchemy, Roman culture banned magic executing alleged witches as early as 331 BC, particularly during epidemics. Christianity rejected the use of all 'ars magica' as well. For the first centuries however, the Christian Church chose to deny the existence of magic rather than persecute it, which led to a relaxation of the connections between muggles and wizards during this period. Some witches and wizards even dared to practice some of their skills in muggle society, most often in the guise of clergy.

A famous example for this is the German witch Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) who is now regarded as a saint by muggles. The muggle born had visions from an early age, being one of the rare true Seers, and if a nearby witch posing as a nun had not offered to take her into a monastery at an age of eight years (in truth a small community of German wizards trying to protect muggle borns from their ignorant families) she would probably suffered at the hand of her muggle relatives for being a freak. As it is, Hildegard von Bingen did join a monastery later in life. When she was educated enough in magic so she was able to control her magic and not scare the muggles, Hildegard felt muggle society should benefit from her skills. In her life among muggles she was known to gain approval for unusual actions even though her superiors often resented those moves which could have been attributed to light confounding spells or potions. Even though the Statute of Secrecy was still some centuries away, she deemed it more practical to hide her true identity from muggle society and took great care not to expose herself. In her works about her visions she tried to bring about more morality, but she also promoted a medicine more close to nature than was sometimes practiced in muggle society. Hildegard von Bingen made a great effort to bring about the use of herbs to cure various illnesses, describing only herbs that muggles can cultivate as well, and is credited for helping muggle medicine cure more and kill less.

However, those cases are only too few, and my more cases can be reported from witch burnings. Especially witches and wizards who were careless about their actions and appearance among muggles often found themselves subject to prosecution. It is to be noted that witch hunts did not originate from the authorities, but from local muggle population, further proof that wizard kind should always take care to fit in muggle society. First accusations of witchcraft can be localized in Switzerland and Croatia. At first the Christian Church did not believe in those accusations, thinking them to be superstition and folly. But soon, their priests began to preach against witches, the beginning of a terrible time in Europe. In 1487, Kramer and Sprenger, two Dominican monks, published the notorious _Malleus Maleficarum_ (the 'Hammer against the Witches'), and even though it was banned at first, by 1520 there were as many as 14 editions printed. Witch trials began to came and leave in waves then, also the belief that witchcraft as far it existed was also used to benefit people was now replaced by the belief that witchcraft was a pact with the devil. Witch hysteria spread all over Europe and even so far as to America. Since muggles weren't particularly good at recognizing magic, they would often catch and burn innocent muggles rather than real witches and wizards. In total numbers, there were approximately 35,000 individuals executed on claims of witchcraft.

In wizard literature those times were not depicted as dark as in contemporary muggle literature, mainly due to the fact that a simple flame freezing charm can be used to avoid being burnt on a stake as well as disapparating skills, magical methods of disguise, confounding skills or potions and in extreme cases obliviation could be employed to evade muggles. The use of those was sanctioned in a special amendment to the International Statue as Secrecy as soon as it was in established in 1692. The amendment was abolished mostly in Great Britain after the Witchcraft Act of 1735 which not only refused to acknowledge the existence of magic but also imposed fees and imprisonment to persons accusing others of witchcraft, a welcome change in legislation for British wizards and witches.

While most of the witches and wizards of those times were sensible enough to avoid being noticed at all, therefore not placing themselves in any danger at all, there were always oddballs in every society, in wizarding societies perhaps even more so. Therefore it's no surprise that some witches and wizards not only didn't try to avoid muggles and their witch hysteria, but also actively sought them out and willingly let themselves be burnt at a stake while freezing the flames. Some claimed to enjoy the sensation, but in most of those cases they also enjoyed the attention and notoriety they gained.

Especially the witch Wendelin the Weird enjoyed this so much, she let herself be caught and burnt at least forty-seven times, although sometimes in various disguises. She is believed to have perished when her wand caught fire as she tried to perform the Flame-Freezing Charm and she suffered a horrible, if predictable death. After this event, intentionally getting caught and being burnt at the stake lost its popularity among danger seeking wizards and witches.

The national and international wizarding authorities have stated that of some 35,000 executions on behalf of witchcraft 'only a few accidents' were actual witches and wizards being burnt drowned or somehow else killed. However, there are persistent rumours that the number of wizards and witches killed in witch hunts is much higher. After all, our kind is not known for fitting in well with muggles regarding appearance and knowledge about muggles in general is still pitifully low even nowadays. And since muggle folklore usually depicts witches as having a cauldron and a wand, an unannounced raid and thorough search of house and body would result in finding those, removal of the wand would happen immediately upon recognizing it. This would leave the wizard or witch with few, if any, means to escape. As long as the wizarding authorities refuse to clear up this aspect, suspicion about rewriting history will unfortunately remain.

Concluding, it can be said that in spite of the partly foggy wizarding records, witch hunts and burnings were not of equal importance to muggle and wizarding societies. While muggles were panicking over the perceived threat to them, wizards mostly went into hiding and kept out of trouble. However, the memories of this time are different in the two societies, with wizards still keeping in mind the danger muggles can pose to wizards (now augmented with modern weapons such as guns, missiles and bombs) and muggles thinking of the witch hunts and burnings as follies made in unfounded superstition.

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Author's Note: I liked the idea of muggle and wizard history being so close, and we never got to know what Harry wrote in his essay at the beginning of The Prisoner of Azkaban. But I don't think even Professor Binns chose the exact same topic every year, so I changed it a bit.


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